Just for sake of News
News about boiler explosion in #NTPC #Unchahar power plant is flooded in the national media. Most reports appear xerox and are confusing. May be the person quoted in reportage have no adequate idea of power plant operation and/or, most possibly, the reporters didn't understand them correctly.
Some says explosion is due to ash deposition in boiler, some says explosion is in flue gas duct while others says explosion in steam line. Boiler ash collection and evacuation is a normal process, therefore explosion in boiler because of ash deposition makes no sense. In this case, multiple issues including achieving optimum temperature and pressure at normal conditions in the boiler would have been visible in the control room to take action on.
As far as flue gas duct is concerned, it is wide with not so high temperature and pressure gas, hence pressure building for explosion appears not so practical. In case pressure mounts, may lead to leakage of duct, not the explosion that too in boiler. Explosion is most possible in steam line as it carries super-heated and highly pressurised steam. Quite possible reason may be the failure of safety valves. However in most cases, alarms and/or indications of abnormal conditions will be visible in control room to take corrective measures. Are these symptoms got ignored, is a questions to be explored. It also indicates the possibility of some ongoing maintenance work in boiler area, which may have confused control room and let the abnormality go ignored. There could be other reasons of this incident that need to be explored and investigated.
Safety denied: Production wins over Lives
However, the incident has clear indication that industrial #safety is still an ignored and tertiary subject for Indian industries. It is not the first incident, neither the last. Most of such hazard areas employ #unskilled #laborers, therefore, higher production always gets priority over their lives. It is quite possible that the unit was being forced to run despite of some visible abnormal operating conditions which plant officials ignored and kept the boiler operating.
Big Question
Question is- what is the learning from this incident? Can 26 innocent lives gone in this incident make any change?
Answer is NO. Asking Why!
The answer is blowing in the wind……
can also be read at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/boiler-explosion-ntpc-unchahar-indicates-ignorance-safety-kanchan/?trackingId=qMwAtgqHT3m6IRmTsdgdJQ%3D%3D
Sanjeev K Kanchan
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